Build a networking plan for entrepreneurial success

Learn how to create a relationship-building strategy that matters as much as your product.

Mary ·

Before You Start

Goal: Leave with a map of your existing network and a plan to leverage it to grow your business or freelance portfolio.

Watch: Yes, You Can Be an Entrepreneur Too (TED, Saamra Mekuria-Grillo) — Members are encouraged to watch beforehand, but a quick recap at the meeting works too.

Mekuria-Grillo argues that social capital — who you know, and who's willing to open a door for you — is just as critical to entrepreneurial success as financial capital. It's a skill that can be learned and built deliberately, even if you're not well-connected to start with.

Meeting Agenda · Approx. 60 mins

  • Member Updates · 10 mins
  • Icebreaker · 10 mins
  • Key Takeaways · 5 mins
  • Activities · 20 mins
  • One Action · 10 mins
  • Wrap-Up · 5 mins

👋 Member Updates · 10 mins

Go around your Circle and share personal updates. Keep them brief and focused on significant changes or important decisions since the last time you met. It's OK not to have one every month. If you have a One Action update from last time, share that too.

🧊 Icebreaker · 10 mins

Invite everyone in the group to share. Keep answers to one or two minutes per person.

Think of one opportunity in your career or business that came through a relationship, not a cold application or search. What was it, and who made it possible?

🔑 Key Takeaways · 5 mins

  • Relationships are a form of capital, not just a soft add-on to entrepreneurship. Mekuria-Grillo argues social capital drives entrepreneurial outcomes as much as financial capital does — yet networking isn't always built as deliberately as part of a business plan.
  • Almost every successful entrepreneur can point to a specific introduction or relationship that changed their trajectory. Success often involves someone else showing up at the right moment.
  • Mobilizing your network is a learnable skill. Even if you're not well-connected, you can learn who to get to know, how to do it, and how to make impactful requests of them at the right moment.
  • Most people have more useful contacts than they realize. The first step is to map the network you already have and figure out how to leverage it.
  • Design a relationship-building strategy — Create a plan for growing your network that includes weekly or even daily outreach.

🏋️ Activity 1 · 10 mins

Map Your Existing Social Capital

  1. List everyone you can think of who's connected to your life right now — family, past colleagues, former clients, acquaintances, alumni contacts, neighbors, people from your kids' school community. Don't filter for "who could actually help me" — just get names and groups down.
  2. Now go a layer further: think about people you don't know directly, but could get access to through someone you do know — a family member's coworkers, a friend's professional network, another parent's spouse who works in a relevant field. Who's one step removed but reachable?
  3. For everyone on your list — direct or one step removed — note what world or set of contacts they have access to that you don't.
  4. Circle 3 people (direct or one step removed) you haven't reached out to who could plausibly help with something specific right now - e.g. by making introductions or sharing your product with their networks. These are the first people you'll contact (you'll reach out to the others in time).

Discuss as a group:

  1. Share your 3 circled names and the worlds each one has access to. How do you think they can help grow your business?
  2. Can any group members help each other with introductions?

🏋️ Activity 2 · 10 mins

Create an Outreach Strategy

Write it down:

  1. Choose one of your circled people and draft an email to them. Include a short pitch for your product or offering, and a specific ask (e.g., "could you introduce me to X and Y, write a review, or share my product on social media or with your coworkers?").
  2. Make the email warm and friendly. If you know them well, engage authentically about their life, ask after family or work, etc. This email draft is your template; you can modify it for everyone else you contact.
  3. Offer to hop on a call, since in-person (or live) outreach can be so much more powerful than email alone.

Discuss as a group:

  1. Share your email with the group, if you're comfortable, so you can all learn from each other's techniques.
  2. Talk through how you'll prioritize networking with everyone on the list you made in activity 1. How much time do you each plan to spend networking each week, given that it's as important as fundraising?

🎯 One Action · 10 mins

Commit to one concrete action — big or small — you'll take before next meeting. Go around the Circle and share (1 minute or less per member). Vocalizing it helps hold each other accountable.

Send the specific ask from Activity 2 to the person you identified. Come back ready to report what happened.

📅 Wrap-Up · 5 mins

Before you break, plan your next meeting and close on an energetic note. Go around your Circle one by one and finish the sentence:

Now I am feeling… (choose one word).

  • Set the day, time, and location
  • Choose the next topic or resource
  • Confirm who's leading the discussion
  • Decide how you'll stay in touch in between